Polarization diversity describes splitting an arriving optical signal into two orthogonal polarization components in order to process the two polarization components separately. Current solutions for photonic integrated circuits split light into two segments—fundamental transverse electric and traverse magnetic modes (i.e., TE0 and TM0); one of these segments is then rotated (i.e., either TE0 to TM0 or TM0 to TE0). When both segments are either TE0 or TM0, they are transmitted through identical circuits or through symmetric paths on the same circuit.
Thus, current solutions for polarization diversity typically require the input light to have polarization states of TE0 and TM0 waveguide modes in a PIC, and require devices or optical circuit components to rotate of one of these modes.
Descriptions of certain details and implementations follow, including a description of the figures, which may depict some or all of the embodiments described below, as well as discussing other potential embodiments or implementations of the inventive concepts presented herein. An overview of embodiments of the invention is provided below, followed by a more detailed description with reference to the drawings.